Cross-Stitch, Making Masks, Sourdough and Flowers

Hello!  How was your weekend?  I spent a fair bit of mine making tiny little x's on fabric.  I blame Vera, my blog friend, for getting me started on this. LOL! I am closing in on finishing the work on this 13 star flag.  

The tools of the trade.  My special sewing scissors and a magnifying glass a friend of mine from years ago brought back for me from her trip to England.  It's sterling silver and I use it all the time.  I think I'm going to pull out my "stars" and do new ones as these are not as nice as I'd like.  Then to embroider "Pins and Needles" on this, sew it to fabric for the needle book cover and sew the "pages" inside.  

I ran out of red floss on my LAST stripe on my flag so I had to go Michaels to go get some more and also got this box of 36 colors.  I wore a mask and used a sterilizer on my hands and credit card when I returned to the car.

To be honest this makes me want to embroider something really colorful.. lol!

I now have all the materials to make some new masks for Dayle and I.  The ones we have are rather tight and mine has too small of elastic ear straps and it will pop off my face at the most inopportune times.  I am also going to replace the elastic on that one.  I will make some for my grandsons for when they return to school, if they want one.

Here is the pattern I found.  Wish me luck.

Mocha says hello.

I've been feeding my sourdough, this is what it looks like when it's very happy.  Foamy.

My sister Denise visited last week and I had prepared a jam jar full of starter for her.  She has really taken to sourdough-ing and has made flapjacks (pancakes) for her husband and herself and she said they were the best pancakes she's ever had.  Then she made a sourdough pizza in a cast iron frying pan, then some crackers and is making a rustic loaf tonight and is going to do a sourdough chocolate cake, too.  YAY!  Her pizza (below) has inspired us to make some for our late lunch today.

I added some King Arthur whole wheat flour to my sourdough starter and it liked it!  :-)  I've decided to name my starter - Jane Dough.  LOL!

Dayle made some zucchini bread when the boys were here and it came out flat, due to him using our new big bread pan, 5x9.  So, this time he doubled the recipe and look at this beauty!!

This is, without a doubt, the tastiest zucchini bread in the universe.  

We HAD to test it, right?

One of the new dahlias I ordered from Brecks finally bloomed and I am royally peeved.  Although it's nice, it is NOT like the one I ordered.  

This is what was shown on the website when I ordered it.  No way it's the same flower.  I will be calling them today to complain.  

I thought I'd share the progress of my 2 flower baskets.

I'm loving my hydrangea in this stage.

The Astilbe is looking good, too. 

I had to show you the new mower that Travis got for Kristi.  She is one happy gardener!!  :-)

I will close with this beautiful photo of the Pacific Ocean that my 11 year old grandson took while on an overnight trip to the beach with their aunt, Kristi's sister and their uncle.  He used his iPhone.  Well done!

I want to thank those of you who have been supportive during a difficult time.  Mean people suck.  Right?  Have a wonderful week!  ((hugs)), Teresa :-)